Breaking into Japanese Literature: Seven Modern Classics in Parallel Text

The only bad thing that can be said about this book is that the translations on the right hand page make it almost too easy to cheat and just read things in English. However, if you have a little self discipline, you'll find that there's a lot here to love. The translations are not literal, and aim to maintain the feeling of the sentences in English. I found it fun to compare my translation to that of the author, and enjoyed those "aha!" moments when I realized "But that's not really what it's saying!". After reading this book it has become clearer than ever that a lot of things get lost/mutated in translation as a means to tailor things to English speaking audiences. As far as the definitions at the bottom go, it is interesting to note that same word is often defined in different ways based on usage. This is a nice touch as it shows the versatility of those words, that would be hard to grasp if we did not see them used multiple ways. And to close, I'll say that the story selections were interesting. The repetition of words and phrases in them made them an intelligent choice by Mr. Murray. Because you will see some of the same words often in the same story, you will naturally pick up on them just so you can avoid the annoyance of looking up their definition everytime you come across them. In summary, this book is a great introduction to Japanese fiction and I've enjoyed my time with it. If you're looking to make the jump into non-educational material, this is a great starting place. 皆さん、頑張りましてください！

This book is a very good source of learning the nuances of Japanese people during the time of the authors, which may still be possibly present even until now. Aside from the very helpful in-text kanji and hiragana phrases below the Japanese text, explanations regarding the stories' settings were also given, making the reader even more aware of the cultural background behind each story. This also gives a Japanese "feel" to the stories, adding to their authenticity to many readers. For example, in Souseki's Yume Juuya stories, different periods in ancient Japan were showed, complete with vivid descriptions of each setting. Each story takes the reader into another world, with supernatural, creepy, and bizarre elements added. My personal favorite is the Third Night, which explores reincarnations and realizations, complete with macabre details. Aside from the content, I also recommend this book to upper-beginners of the Japanese language. The book style is not only welcoming to intermediate and advanced Japanese language learners, but to beginners as well, provided that one has knowledge of kana as well as at least grade 1 kanji. This book is a way for beginners to appreciate the basic kanji and words that were learned, either in class or by oneself. It is also a good reading set to test reading comprehension skills, as well as listening skills when the audio files are used in tandem. I gave this book a high-overall rating and a good recommendation not just for its content but also on how it was made. It is a very good book for one to become introduced to Japanese culture and literature, as well as a useful tool in learning the Japanese language.

This book offers seven short pieces of Japanese literature, along with more or less parallel English translations. Each and every kanji has a translation, so you do not have to worry about that. This is a good learning tool for intermediate students, say at the level of two years of college Japanese. I have two problems with this book. First, the stories are all a bit gruesome and negative. I did not enjoy any of them. Maybe your taste is different, but be forewarned. Second, and more substantively, the translation is not as close as I would have liked. Sure, it is accurate, and it reads just fine in English. Indeed, a verbatim translation would not be as pretty. But, for a student, it is more helpful to have a verbatim translation than one that is written stylishly in English. After all, the English is only there to be informative. The point is to learn Japanese. Here's an alternative that I like much better and is suitable for students of the same level: buy a copy of the first Harry Potter book in Japanese, and another copy in English. Both are available from Amazon.com. The translation is excellent and more nearly verbatim than I would have thought possible. All but the most basic kanji have furigana. (If you do not know what I am talking about, or if you do not know about 100 kanji, then chances are that both of these books are going to be very frustrating for you.) Sure, you are not reading "Japanese literature," but you are reading a book that millions of Japanese have read and which is written for a real Japanese audience.

This is really enjoyable; the translations aren't "learners" translations, so it was really interesting for me to read the Japanese text, then see what I felt was missing from the English translation when I looked down for help or to see if I had the meaning right. The English text is enjoyable prose in its own right since it's not written in an extremely literal style as you might expect, and while normally I prefer very literal translations, in this case the original text is right there for the reader, who is assumed to know Japanese, to compare it with. Vocab words, turns of phrase and unusual grammar are also all defined right there on the same page as the original text. Enjoyable even just as a collection of Japanese stories if your Japanese isn't up to snuff yet, if your Japanese level is second or third year, it's a great learning resource too. You can also download MP3s from the website listed in the boook for listening based study and to get a feel for cadence and word pitch.

I bought this a couple of years ago (three years ago, I guess) when I was first learning Japanese. I can't say that I used it to get better at Japanese so much as I used it to gauge my Japanese reading abilities. After a couple of years of study and thinking to myself that maybe I can get through the book now, I can finally say that I can read the stories and get most of the gist of the story without having to constantly look up kanji (or read the companion text). The companion English text is definitely still useful for clearing things up for me, though. I'd say this is a useful exercise, but requires a pretty good knowledge of Japanese already in order for these stories to be useful. A beginner should be warned that this book will be very slow reading. As for the stories and the translations, I thought they were excellent stories and that the translations are very well done. As with (what seems like) everything with learning Japanese, it takes a long time to feel like you "get it".

As a serious language learner, your most important goal is the reading of authentic source materials -- especially classics of literature -- in the original language. This volume, as well as its follow-up, 'Exploring Japanese Literature', are very useful tools to assist you in getting to that level. This book is, of course, not for the beginner, but for the intermediate student -- and by 'intermediate' I mean something different from what most watered-down Japanese language curricula designate as such -- but the format is well-thought out, and the execution almost perfect. The ordered presentation of vocabulary next to the text makes entering new words into a flashcard program as one reads very easy, and Murray strikes the right balance between presenting too many fiddly conjunctions and adverbs in the vocabulary and assuming too much knowledge on the reader's part. The editor did not do an exemplary job; the vocabulary sections have typographical errors, mostly minor, but some more serious, including a curious incident in one of the Soseki stories where an entire sentence's vocabulary, including words defined nowhere else, are mysteriously skipped over. I also must lightly criticize the translation, which, despite the Murray's pledge in the introduction to translate word-by-word as meticulously as possible, often are too abstracted from the text to be of great help with a convoluted Japanese expression, especially for the less advanced reader. One imagines that he is trying to cater to the minority of readers who buy the book simply for translations of some well-known Japanese short stories, but as someone who does not answer to that description, I would have found translationese very appropriate. The on-line recordings are a great tool and well-acted to boot, but sometimes the readers' pronunciation of certain words (mostly obscure and archaic kanji compounds) differ from the furigana in the text. But since these are provided on-line and free of charge, one really cannot complain. In sum: if you are serious about finding your footing in literary Japanese, you want this book.

I Bought this book with The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary, which is incredible, but there is a problem. the number of the kanji in the Breaking into Japanese Literature book, does not correspond to the kanji in the dictionary. par eample, the kanji "dream" in the book is indicated with the number 1510. ok... You go now to the kanji learner's dictionary, and the No 1510 kanji is the word "drink"! So, you have to go buck to the dictioary, find the word "yiume" wich means dream, and find out that is thw kanji number 2046!!! Emmmm !! Thats a problem, no? This two books supose to work together! Two realy good books ut in this point I'm diassapointed... Breaking into Japanese Literature: Seven Modern Classics in Parallel Text The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary: Revised and Expanded

I was really fascinated by this book. The stories are very interesting that make you wanna find and read the original books. Level of japanese language is ok for the ones studying for level N3 and above, the kanji met in the srciptures are about 2000 that cover most of the everyday used kanji. In each page, underneath the prototype there are vocabulary and some basic grammatical notes, which are very helpfull, the english translation is adequately accurate and most important is that above each kanji there are the furigana, so that the reading procedure is not interrupted. I definately recommend this book to anyone at intermidiate level. It makes the procedure of learning new vocabulary and kanji just a piece of cake.

This book does exactly what it says it will do which is to help the student of the Japanese language read real Japanese literature. The content is from early 20th century writers, and is rather ero-guro (erotic-grotesque) a popular genre of Japanese writing, and this may put off some readers. However, the book comes with a splendid apparatus of vocabulary and notes and makes the study of literary Japanese a pleasure rather than a chore. Altogether excellent.

Il mio livello di conoscenza del giapponese è basso/intermedio, quello dell'inglese molto buono. Sul foglio sinistro si trovano delle piccole storie scritte in un giapponese (con i furigana) di livello intermedio/alto. Sul foglio destro si trova la traduzione in inglese. La comprensione delle storie e della grammatica è fattibile anche se non facile per un principiante come me. In basso c'è un dizionario con tutti i Kanji usati nella pagina e gli hiragana per leggerli. Non lo ho ancora fatto ma è possibile scaricare il file audio da Internet oppure ascoltarlo in streaming dal sito dell'editore. Per chi vuole imparare la lingua come me è ottimo. Sono soddisfatto dell'acquisto.

This book is really great. Its layout is very practical and the stories, although a bit dark, are really nice, specially for people who are still learning about japanese literature. I wouldn't recommend it for total beginners though, I find the book a bit hard for newbies, but still a great book!

Excellent for those who love to read Japanese classics to improve their knowledge of Japanese culture and language. I would recommend to anyone.

Breaking into Japanese Literature. Seven Modern Classics in Parallel Texts. Juni 2012. Giles Murray Sowohl literarisch als auch didaktisch gute Wahl. Sorgfältig bearbeitet. Ermöglicht auch Lesern, die nur über mäßige Sprachkenntnisse verfügen, einen authentischen Zugang zur japanischen Kultur, zu der für uns oft ungewöhnlichen Denkweise und dem vielschichtigen Empfinden.